DANVILLE — All Brown Mackie College sophomore Brian Word could think about during halftime of the Lions’ fifth-place game of the NJCAA Division II National Tournament was his season coming to an end.

Eight points was all he managed through the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s game, and finishing his career at Brown Mackie with a loss wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. Trailing 32-30 to the Kishwaukee Community College Kougars, he made the decision to put the fate of the Lions in his hands.

So for the next 25 minutes, Word did everything he could to help his team leave Danville on a winning note. One half and an overtime period later, Word put on a performance he likely won’t forget as the Lions pulled off a 78-75 overtime win.

“I took the game over,” Word said. “I had to. It wasn’t looking good. We were down and guys weren’t hitting shots so I had to step up.

“We needed a spark and we weren’t getting it. We were frustrated down the line from our biggest to our smallest, so somebody had to step up. I got a little frustrated and I picked up a tech, but that kind of got me going. I sat down for a little bit, got to survey the game and I just took over from there.”

Word finished the game scoring a season-high 28 points including a thunderous alley-oop dunk on an assist from Anthony Daigle with 3:13 remaining in overtime.

The slam caught even some of the Kougars off guard and left the entire gym speechless.

“He’s had some spectacular dunks, but I’ve never seen him catch one the way his body was turned and how he went up,” Brown Mackie coach Francis Flax said. “How he did that, I don’t know. I haven’t seen that before.

“I’ve had a lot of guys that can dunk, but if you saw that play, that was a big-time play. He’s just a competitor. He wants to win and he does whatever it takes to try to help us win.”

Word also nearly won the game in regulation when he tracked down a loose ball and heaved it toward the basket as time expired. The three-quarter court shot rattled the rim and dropped through, but after the officials reviewed the play, the basket was waved off.

The Lions trailed by as many as 8 in the second half before going on an 11-0 run that was capped by Word’s second 3-pointer of the game.

“I thought we had a pretty good handle on it,” Kishwaukee coach Rob Buss said. “We got up about eight or nine. It was just one of those situations where there was just a little too much time on the clock. We kind of got ourselves back into the game. They did a heck of a job bringing themselves back into the game.

“We had a lot of opportunities to finish this game off and we didn’t take advantage. At this level, you’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities.”

Paul Tometich (7 rebounds, 4 assists) and Lavonte Douglas each scored 19 for the Kougars, and Adrian Thomas put up 17.

In addition to Word’s 28 points, he grabbed nine rebounds, dished out four assists, and recorded five blocks. Robbie Lewis (19 points, seven rebounds) and Josh Langford (12 points, three assists) also finished in double figures for the Lions.

“It’s truly a blessing,” Word said of finishing the season with a win. “We started the season 1-6 and ended it 7-1, so just the turnaround and the love that we’ve got for each other.

“At the beginning of the season, we didn’t have it as a team. It was awesome. This is big. This is one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in my life.”